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When I first saw this photo, I thought, “Those are three nicely-proportioned vessels made of nicely-figured wood.” And then I looked again. What I failed to realize at first was that the three hollow vessels were actually made from a single piece of burl, and still connected!

This is a level of multi-axis lathe work that I have never encountered or imagined before, and it has reignited my interest in turning.

This weekend, I am opening up my once-private wood shed to all my readers and the public in a bid to reduce inventory levels so I can finally finish moving out of my old shop space.

1114 Barberry Place, Port Moody… wood shed around the right side in the back

Friday September 29, 10-4
Saturday September 30, 10-4
Sunday October 1, by appointment only

For anyone with a specific project in mind (table, mantel, shelf, headboard, etc), or just getting into woodworking, this is a great opportunity to get quality, local wood that is of premium quality and at very affordable prices. Volume discounts available! (I also have a 2-speed Delta ceiling-mounted air filtration unit that I would like to sell.)

I have finished uploading all the pictures that I have; some wood still remains undocumented and will be priced this weekend during the sale as I have time.

Where: 1114 Barberry Place, Port Moody, BC… wood shed around the right side

Wood Slabs for Sale!

I gave up some shop space when I moved, but the real loss was wood storage space. With only limited wood storage, I brought with me the material I needed. The rest – about 1500 board feet – stayed behind. Now it’s time for it to move, too.

I don’t have space to store it, and I’m not going to pay for storage fees, so I’m selling it.

Benefits of Buying from Me Instead of from a Commercial Lumberyard

Of course, you’re supporting me and helping me clear out surplus material, but there are many benefits for you as well.

Fully Air-Dried and Ready to Use

All of the wood has been air-dried for at least five years and is stored in a dry environment, so it is ready to be used. If you’re not familiar with working air-dried wood, I think you’ll find it to be a treat. The drying process has not been rushed, so there is less tension in the wood. This means less risk of warping in the future. Air-dried wood also feels less brittle. It cuts smoother, and this is particularly evident if using hand tools.

Two Live Edges Intact for Unlimited Possibilities!

Since much of my work revolves around the natural characteristics of wood, I have been careful to preserve the live edges. Whether you are making a dining or coffee table, mantel, headboard, or chopsticks, you will have the option to leave the bark intact, remove the outer bark only, or cut off the entire live edge for uniform lumber. The slabs have been moved and stored either on end or flat, but never on edge.

I Saw the Whole Tree, Through and Through!

My inventory consists of sets of slabs that together comprise an entire tree. This is useful because it makes matching grain and colour easy. This means that you can bookmatch two sequential boards for perfect continuity without resawing and losing thickness, or ensure all the drawer fronts look consistent. This also means that you’ll find beautiful flatsawn grain patterns, riftsawn wood for straight-grained legs, and quartersawn wood for a straight-grained look and stability.

Plus, you’ll find some nice wide slabs, perfect for table tops.

Domestic Hardwoods, Sustainably Harvested

This wood is from BC trees. Many of the species are not commercially available or easy to find. I helped mill much of it, and have worked with all of them and can share my experiences.

Please come by to have a look. Cash preferred, but I can also accept credit cards. Sorry – no debit. Delivery can be arranged if required.

Most elm trees do not grow very large and consequently it is rare to find elm mature enough to exhibit a substantial amount of darker heartwood. Pockets of in-grown bark is typical of this species, lending to the unique look of elm.

Elm works well, and common uses include furniture, boxes and veneer.

It was milled on one of the hottest days in 2013.

You may remember this table top that I made from one slab three years ago.

A pair of dovetail keys reinforced a separation in the slab, and epoxy was used to fill in voids.

The latest addition to my catalog of air-dried slabs for sale is butternut (Juglans cinerea). A relative to the highly sought-after black walnut, butternut shares the same grain patterns but the colour is lighter – similar to the shades of bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum).

Butternut is also lighter in weight and softer than black walnut, making it an ideal wood for working with hand tools and is popular for carvings. Other common uses include furniture and boxes. It is an ideal material to use for a sculpted/carved panel, contrasting with a comparatively simple frame. It is also ideal for chair seats for the same reasons pine is the traditional seat material in a windsor chair.

It works well with both hand and power tools and glues and finishes well. Butternut is a great wood to work with – especially for beginners.

The seat of my workshop stool is made of butternut. The legs are bigleaf maple.

I made the structural members and panel of this headboard out of butternut, and finished it with orange shellac.

Like this:

Since 2005, I have been stockpiling local hardwoods. These are full flitches (entire logs) milled to my specifications for furniture making and stacked on pallets.

All of this material has been slowly and patiently air-dried. It’s a process that is not widely used commercially due to the time requirement, but the quality of the material is so much better than kiln-dried.

These are some of the primary benefits of air-dried wood.

Can be bent in tighter curves and with higher success rates.

The material feels less brittle and works easier.

Less tendency to warp as it is being worked.

Some say that the colours of air-dried material are more vibrant.

For the first time, I am offering the wood from my private woodshed to the general public. Cataloguing everything takes time, and I will continue to add more as time permits. Subscribe to my blog to be notified when I post more pictures of wood available.

Like this:

The large majority of the wood that I have is sawn in slabs. While the live edges allow more design possibilities, there are times when I don’t need them.

Layout

To process this slab, I start by aligning my straight edge just inside the bark. This results in the straightest grain with the least amount of waste. This wood is black locust, which I really like using. My sculpture, Something Like That is made of the same species.

I use a carpenter’s pencil to transfer the location of the straight edge onto the slab.

Cutting

Then, I use my circular saw to make the cut. For large, heavy slabs, I prefer to use portable power tools to break down slabs into more manageable pieces. I use a circular saw when possible for efficiency, and a jigsaw for material thicker than 2.5 inches, or curved cuts (e.g. Relationship Study).

If the material is more manageable, I usually turn to my bandsaw for breaking down rough stock, mostly because it is safer to use with unflattened parts than the table saw.

Due to the dusty nature of this operation, I prefer to do this work outside, weather permitting. It creates a lot of dust, and if there isn’t a breeze carrying away the dust, I try to hold by breath for the duration of the cut. Unfortunately, I can’t hold my breath for the two-minutes it takes to cut through seven feet of 2.5 inch thick hardwood.

If the saw doesn’t make it all the way through, I usually finish with a hand saw. I find it quite enjoyable pretending to make the entire cut with a hand saw at an amazing speed.

This edge needs to be jointed to make it smooth and straight. Note that even if the cut surface is perfectly smooth and straight, I still check it a few days later to ensure that the wood hasn’t moved after being released from the rest of the slab.

Here’s the yield (minus the long piece at the back which is my straight edge). I will allow them to acclimate and stabilize before processing them further into rails and cross members for my vehicle’s roof rack.

What a Mess

As I broke down the slab, I was aware of the massive amount of dust I was creating. My circular saw, which takes a 0.069″ kerf, removed 125 cubic inches of material. That’s equivalent to a 5 inch cube – a lot of dust to throw around.

The Festool TS 75 Track Saw is starting to make a lot of sense to me. Not only does it have provisions for dust collection, the saw has over 3 inches of cutting capacity and leaves a much better cut surface. Using a rail to guide the saw allows me to make perfectly straight cuts, resulting in less clean-up. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to wash the sawdust out from between my toes.

How Does Overflow Work?

I will post a picture and brief description of the item or group of items up for grabs.There will be some wood, hand tools, power tools, accessories, random shop stuff, and books. Most items will be in good-to-excellent shape;

Comment if you want it! I suggest you subscribe to this blog so you get notified when I post something. If you want the item(s), leave a comment on that particular blog post and let me know if you can pick it up or if you need it shipped. (I will ship anywhere on your dime once my PayPal account is happy.); then

When the deadline to enter has passed, I will submit the names of those interested into a Random Chooserand let the program draw a winner. I will announce the winner in the comments section of the Overflow post on my blog and contact them to arrange a pick-up time or shipping details. If the first person chosen changes their mind, the Random Chooser will select another name.

Why am I doing this?

I’m giving stuff away because I would rather help some fellow woodworkers than try to sell it. This is less hassle and more rewarding. I enjoy interacting with my readers and helping others get further in their woodworking.

I also want to increase the number of readers of my blog. Besides having awesome giveaways of quality stuff, I do some pretty cool woodwork, wouldn’t you agree? Please subscribe to my blog using the widget at the bottom of any page or in the right-hand column of my main blog page. You’ll receive notice of what I’m putting up for grabs as well as when I publish a regular blog post.

The ultimate purpose of Overflow is to get this stuff out of my shop (and into yours), so please, tell your friends.

Like this:

Last summer, Shift, a Vancouver company, asked me to make a model of the cargo delivery trikes they use. Although this isn’t the type of project which I would normally build, the challenge of making a working model intrigued me, so I agreed to build it.

Using photographs of their trikes, I established some dimensions for the model and built a prototype for approval. The client liked what I did and asked me to go ahead with the working model. This is what I built.

This video shows the working details of the trike. (Duration – 2:09)

Recently, Shift contacted me requesting another one and I was happy to oblige. Interestingly, the order was completed exactly three months and twenty invoices after the first.

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All material except where otherwise noted is original and copyrighted. Other than brief excerpts for the purpose of review or promotion, content may only be re-used with explicit written permission from Chris Wong.